JAILBREAKERS raked in £112,000 for charity on Sunday - and they are still counting.

And the Million £s for the Millennium target has been smashed by at least £60,000.

"Absolutely staggering'' said co-organisers Ron Davies and Grenville Smith at the end of Herefordshire's 11th Jailbreak.

Nearly 550 jail breakers, seventy per cent of them women and all with a tale to tell completed the event to make it one of the best on record.

"There were no complaints, just a couple of sprained ankles, plenty of blisters and lots of fun,'' said Grenville Smith.

This year 12 coaches took 137 teams to London for the breakout.

But first they were entertained by Tina Turner and Frank Sinatra sound-a-likes at the Dominion Theatre before being let loose.

They quickly became the toast of London Town as they rushed around, dressed in the costumes of weird and wonderful bugs seeking the answers to an obligatory quiz.

Tourists in Regent Street could not believe their eyes and seized upon jail breakers for souvenier pictures to take back with them all over the world.

A mixed team of men and women from Shobdon and Pembridge proved ultimate winners after completing the quiz and getting back to Hereford.

For Bill Stokes and his brother Anthony, Wendy Bowen and Sarah Whittaker of WWW.BUG.R.OFF. COM it was an 'easy peasy' kind of trip.

They got a lift in the back seat of a car from Marble Arch to Oxford. The driver loaned them a mobile phone and Bill called his parents who were cruising round in a car looking for them. The team was picked up just outside Oxford and arrived back in Hereford with a time of five hours, 17 minutes and 37 seconds.

"It was good fun. I have never had a chance to run round the centre of London like that before,'' said Bill.

More teams than ever this year raised in excess of £1,000 in sponsorship and a special prize went to Malvern Crepes and Drapes for heading the list with £5,050.

The money this year will go to the Macmillan Urology Nurse Appeal in Hereford, the Acorns

Children's Hospice in Worcester and the haematology department at Hereford County Hospital.

l A £5 note signed by Danny Baker of Virgin Radio is to be auctioned for Jailbreak. It was part of a £25 contribution given to one of the Jailbreak teams by the radio star at Sunday's event.